Top roll



Sept. 11, 1962 K. P. SWANSON TOP ROLL Filed June 2, 1959 KENNETH P. SWANSON KHWAY. JEENEY WITTER & HILDRETH ATTORNEYS Patented Sept. 11, 1962 3,052,953 TOP ROLL Kenneth P. Swanson, Ahington, Mass, assignor to Progressive Engineering, Inc., Rockland, Mass., :1 corporation of Massachusetts Filed June 2, 1959, Ser. No. 817,513 2 Claims. (Cl. 29116) This invention relates to top rolls customarily employed on spinning and roving frames and comprises a novel combination of cot and ball-bearing elements by means of which top rolls of improved quality and lower cost become available to the art.

In the conventional frame the sliver, or roving, is drawn through the bite of three sets of top and bottom rolls, the top rolls being covered with cots of yielding material such as rubber or cork; the top rolls are pressed down upon the bottom rolls, and mechanism is provided for traversing the sliver or roving from side to side along the cots to distribute wear and prevent the formation of grooves in the cots.

I have invented a cot so arranged as to obviate the formation of grooves under any circumstances, thereby not only making the traversing mechanism unnecessary but also reducing the required width of the cots by as much as 50%. In addition to the saving in the expense of the cots, the mounting of the cots is rendered so simple that the task of replacing them may be accomplished very quickly and without the special tools conventionally used. Moreover, in the structure of my invention the cots are mounted without glue or other adhesive, a fact which still further simplifies replacement as well as reduces both original and maintenance costs.

The most important feature of the invention resides in a relatively narrow cot of yielding material mounted directly on a pair of bearing cups each having at its inner end an inclined flange directed radially inward, the flanges of the two cups being so disposed as to leave a space within the inner periphery of the cot at its midportion. Since the cot is not supported at its center, the sliver or roving being drawn is passed beneath the unsupported center, and the cot flexes inwardly to accommodate it. That arrangement has been found to eliminate entirely the formation of any groove in the cot. Although the reasons appear obscure, the fact has been demonstrated in carefully conducted life tests.

These and other objects and features of my invention will be more readily understood and appreciated from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawings, in which the FIG- URE is a view in side elevation, partly in section, of a top roll constructed in accordance with the invention, the bottom roll being shown in phantom.

As is customary in top roll structures, the top roll of the invention is organized about a cylindrical shaft or arbor it) on which the various parts are mounted. In the particular embodiment of the invention shown in the drawing, there is provided a tubular spacer 11 which may conveniently be made of plastic and preferably molded in situ upon the center portion of the shaft which has been knurled, as shown at 13. At each side of the spacer I1 is a tubular sleeve 12 of metal or plastic having at its inner end an integral spaced shoulder 14. The shoulders 14 and spacer 11 form a saddle for receiving an appropriately formed weighted member (not shown) by means of which the top roll is pressed into engagement with the corresponding bottom roll.

Reading outwardly from the sleeve 12, there is first provided on the shaft a lint seal assembly 16. The particular form of the lint seal forms no part of the present invention, and the structure shown comprises two washers mounted on the shaft and spaced apart by a third washer of lesser diameter, the assembly being completed by an annular seal of felt or other sealing material, which is of larger outside diameter than the washers, and is arranged circumferentially about the third washer to rotate in the space defined between the first two washers mentioned. This lint seal assembly is fully described in my copending patent application Ser. No. 594,872 filed June 29, 1956, now Patent No. 2,948,024.

There is then provided a pair of tubular sleeves or bearing cones 18 each of which is suitably formed to receive and retain a race of bearing balls 20. Mounted for rotation on the bearing balls 20 is a pair of oppositely disposed stiff metal cups 22 upon which is mounted an annular cot 2d of resilient, rubbery material which may be any of the materials customarily used in conventional modern cots. The cups are pressed into the ends of the cot, no glue or adhesive being required. Each of the bearing cups 22 terminates inwardly in an inclined shoulder portion the extremities of which meet approximately at the center line of the cot, thus leaving an annular V-shaped space 25 where an intermediate portion of the cot is not supported. The outer ends of the cups 22 terminate in external annular flanges which seat against the outer ends of the cot 24.

A second lint seal assembly 26 is provided at the outer end of the outer cup 22, and the top roll is completed by a tubular cap or collar 28- secured in place at the end of the shaft by means of a screw 30 threaded into the end of the shaft and having a head which engages a shoulder formed by a counterbore in the collar 28. The screw 39 may conveniently be provided with a socket 32 for the reception of a wrench or other means of manipulating the screw.

Shown in phantom beneath the top roll is a bottom roll including a shaft 34 and two enlarged roll portions 36 which register with the cots 24. In the bite of the top and bottom rolls there is shown the slivers or rovings 38. These are centered, with respect to the cots 24, precisely opposite the V-shaped annular spaces 25 between the inner surfaces of the cots 24 and the inner shoulders on the cups 22. When weight is applied to the top roll to force it against the bottom roll, the cots 24 flex inwardly to accommodate the sliver 38.

In conventional top rolls it is customary to employ cots considerably wider than the cots 24 shown in the figure. The width of the conventional cot is about equal to the width of the bottom roll portion 36 as shown in the drawing. In the practice of the invention it has been found that the usual traversing mechanism may be entirely dispensed with. In other words, it is not necessary to provide means for regularly shifting the sliver 38 back and forth between the top and bottom rolls. In fact it is preferable in connection with the use of the top rolls of my invention, to discard the traversing mechanism and draw the sliver beneath the center of the cot in order that the desired flexing may take place.

It should be further appreciated that the structure of my invention also eliminates the necessity for the usual metal roll shell interposed between the bearings and the cot. The result is that top rolls of my construction are not only superior in performance but radically cheaper to construct, since one saves at least half the cost of the cot material as well as the cost of the usual roll shell. Moreover roll shells are relatively expensive since they require machining operations whereas the cups 22 may easily be produced on a stamping machine. Yet another advantage resides in the fact that tolerances encountered in the machining of roll shells make it imperative that there be some means provided whereby the bearing may be adjusted. On the other hand, the cups 22 as produced on a stamping machine do not vary appreciably in any dimension. Consequently it is entirely unnecessary to provide any means at all for adjusting bearin g pressure.

It will be evident to those skilled in the art that the objectives of the invention may be carried out by the use of parts and structures equivalent to those herein shown and described and that the invention is not limited to the specific forms shown,

Having now disclosed and described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

l. A top roll for spinning and roving frames, comprising a shaft, a pair of bearing means mounted in coaxial end-to-end relation on said shaft, said bearing means including a pair of stiff annular cups extending circumferentially about said shaft, each of said cups having a cylindrical portion, a cylindrical annular cot of yielding material extending between said cylindrical portions of said cups and supported over the major portion of its length thereon, said cups having mutually confronting ends thereof formed with frusto-conical portions extending radially inwardly to form an annular space about the inner periphery of said cot over a minor portion of its length intermediate the axial ends thereof such that said minor portion is radially unsupported.

2. A top roll for spinning and roving frames, comprising a shaft, a pair of bearing means mounted in coaxial end-to-end relation on said shaft, said bearing means including a pair of stiff annular cups extending circumferentially about said shaft, each of said cups having a cylindrical portion, a cylindricalannular cot of yielding material extending between said cylindrical portions of said cups and supported over the major portion of its length thereon, said cups having confronting ends thereof formed with shoulder portions extending radially inwardly to form an annular space about the inner periphery of said cot over a minor portion of its length intermediate the axial ends thereof such that said minor portion is radially unsupported.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,809,251 Pfiimlin June 9, 1931 2,255,821 Schlipp et a1. Sept. 16, 1941 2,716,780 Swanson Sept. 6, 1955 2,755,515 Cotchett et a1 July 24, 1956 2,862,250 Fusaroli Dec. 2, 1958 

